


Meeting

by Rikkamaru



Series: Shadow Hands [6]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball, Naruto
Genre: Gen, Naruto AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 17:45:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2278908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikkamaru/pseuds/Rikkamaru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Twenty word prompts of the interaction between Midorima and Tenten, the Weapons Master and Mistress of Konoha.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> The GoM that were adopted into the Nijimura Clan all have Nijimura as their last name, but have their last names from KnB as nicknames that most people refer to them as.
> 
> Let's play "Where's Anko"! She's mentioned twice in the story, so have fun and good luck!

**1\. Green**

Tenten could admit that she often caught herself staring at Midorima's hair if she wasn't careful. She couldn't help it, she often argued in her own mind. His hair was just so eye-catching and… _green_.

Of course, once she met his former teammates from when he was a genin, she would be singing a completely different tune.

At least _his_ hair let him blend in more with the forests surrounding their village. Theirs on the other hand…

* * *

**2\. Brown**

Shintarou could actually remember his eyes training on her hair the first time they met in a professional setting (well, as professional as a genin challenging a jounin to a weapons spar could be). Or rather, on the buns that her hair were put into.

He would have dismissed her right then as a frivolous shinobi who would lose her life on a mission if she didn't act more seriously, if he hadn't caught a look at her eyes. They shone like the well-cut amber he often saw in his guardian's hands, and burned with a fire equal to the glassblowing kilns he'd seen in Suna.

He stared at her burning brown eyes, and accepted the request to spar.

* * *

**3\. Red**

She came across Midorima one day while he was in a vicious battle against a red-haired Puppeteer. His weapons moved in synch with the hawk he always had on his shoulder when he was walking around the village.

The battle was so intense that Tenten nearly moved to join him in fighting the other shinobi, thinking the redhead an enemy, until she realized that, as fiercely as the two of them were fighting, they weren't following through with any of their moves that could be fatal.

She watched in rapt awe as the fight slowly wound down and the two stopped, bowing to one another before turning to their audience. Midorima frowned slightly at her, but the redhead merely gave her a considering look before turning away dismissively.

"It was a good spar, Shintarou," the other teen said, sipping from a water bottle. His puppet was returned to a large scroll that was slung across his back. "I'll leave you to your…friend," he said that word doubtfully, "and work on the flaws I found with Hidora." He waited for Midorima's nod then walked off, not even bothering to acknowledge Tenten.

She glared heatedly at the departing teen's back and turned to Midorima. "What the hell's his problem?"

Midorima looked away from his hawk that he had been carefully checking over and shrugged slightly. "Akashi has always been that way. He can see when someone has great potential or is moving to reach that potential. He just dismisses those who he doesn't deem worth interacting with at the moment."

Tenten seethed silently as she warmed up for their spar. He beat her more soundly than usual with her as distracted as she was.

The hawk seemed to be laughing at her as Midorima left.

* * *

**4\. Purple**

Tenten looked up, and up, and up at Midorima's second teammate. Then she _stared_.

What the hell? Midorima was already ridiculously tall for a shinobi, but this guy was a _monster_. Blatantly ignoring her, the huge teen was eating his way through a bag of cookies and only grunted a short greeting at Midorima before dismissing him.

Midorima nodded at him as well before turning to her to ask what she had been following him for, and Tenten could only stare a little more. They certainly didn't _act_ like former teammates.

But she didn't say anything, afraid that the tall boy – Murasakibara, she would learn later – would _eat_ _her_ for her attitude or something.

* * *

**5\. Blue**

Daiki lounged on the branch he'd found near Shintarou's favorite training ground and watched as that tiny genin that'd been shadowing the green-haired jounin approached him, most likely to challenge him to a spar once more.

"I don't really get why he humors her," he muttered aloud, lazily swinging a kunai from one of his fingers, unbothered by the threat it would normally pose to anyone acting so carelessly with it.

He snorted as the spar began, and ended rather abruptly by shinobi standards, Shintarou taking little time to paralyze her arms temporarily with clever use of senbon and his lightning nature.

"So boring," he muttered again, rolling over on the branch to take a nap. Shintarou would get him when he was done.

* * *

**6\. Yellow**

One of Midorima's younger brothers, Kise, absolutely frightened Tenten. He'd taken one look at her fighting style and matched her perfectly. It was like fighting against a mirror, and that subconsciously frightened her enough for the blonde to pin her to the ground, one of her own kunai pressed against her neck.

Midorima sighed as the blonde teen got off of her, offering her a hand and watching her with amused golden eyes. She took it with a huff and demanded another spar.

He accepted, and it lasted even shorter as he copied her more advanced moves that she was using, though his movements were much more fluid than her own, to her growing frustration.

Finally, as she lay panting on the ground and he remained standing and chuckling slightly at her, she snapped a little. "What are you, part Uchiha?" she asked, confused and somewhat suspicious.

This was apparently the wrong thing to ask, as his smile fell a little before coming back up, clearly fake this time, his eyes cold and hard. "Nope," he chirped sharply. "I can't say that I am." He left shortly after that, and Tenten couldn't help but feel that she had touched a nerve for some reason.

When she looked at Midorima for help, he looked more disappointed in her than she had anticipated, and it stung a little.

* * *

**7\. Pink**

When Tenten finally met Midorima's younger – and only – sister, she began to suspect that the family had been created to give people complexes. That or this girl would truly become the next Tsunade.

In more ways than one.

Ignoring both the thought and the feeling of what self-esteem she had as a female promptly crumbling into dust, she greeted the pink-haired girl politely and was happy to find that she had a mind sharper than even Tenten's favorite kunai.

"You're progressing quite well as a Weapons Mistress," the older girl told her happily after observing her for a few minutes. "Though you may want to start integrating weapons for close combat into your arsenal."

"Oh?" Tenten asked. She'd never been advised that before, outside of Midorima's caustic remarks on the matter. "Why?"

"You'll never be a true Weapons Mistress if you're only skilled in the long-ranged ones." She then left, her pink-hair fanning out behind her, with Tenten staring in surprise at her back.

* * *

**8\. Black**

The girl was hounding him for advice once again and Shintarou was growing tired of it. He'd managed to escape and was relaxing in a tea shop when he received a rather unpleasant surprise.

"Shintarou-kun, I wasn't expecting to see you here today."

Shintarou jumped with a loud yelp, Takao nearly falling off of his shoulder with the abruptness of his movement. Turning to the voice, he glowered at his older brother figure. "Tetsuya-nii, I've told you not to do that. You'll get attacked one day if you keep startling shinobi in the village."

"Shin-chan has a point, Tet-chan," the hawk agreed, trying to smooth the feathers that'd fluffed up in surprise.

Tetsuya bowed his head in apology, but Shintarou didn't believe it for a second. "Of course, Shintarou-kun, Takao-kun. My apologies." He then paused and took a sip of his drink, Shintarou further berating himself for being surprised Tetsuya was there once he realized that it was the only shop in the village that sold vanilla milkshakes. "I saw the genin chasing you; another admirer perhaps?"

"Definitely not," he scoffed, and bristled at Tetsuya's amused smile.

* * *

**9\. White**

Neji glowered at the green haired jounin that was talking quietly with Gai, Lee listening in with fascination that was growing into excitement. Gai looked proud of something, while the jounin only appeared mildly interested. The hawk that perched on the jounin's shoulder began cleaning its feathers and Neji suspected that something was going on when the jounin adjusted his glasses and shot it a look.

The jounin soon approached him and Neji straightened his back at the sharp look in those green eyes. "Your sensei tells me that you're able to neutralize your female teammate's weapons with ease."

Neji nodded, not bothering to act modest on the matter. "That is correct. The Byakugan allows 360 degrees of vision; I am able to dodge and block her with ease."

The jounin seemed somewhat amused, his hawk chirping in what sounded like laughter. "I see. So you would not be against a light spar against me? I too am primarily a user of weapons."

Neji snorted; this fool wouldn't last long. "I would not." They stood a respectful distance away from one another to start, and in an instant they moved. Neji blinked and jumped away as five shuriken passed over right where he had just been standing. Not wanting it to end too early, Neji activated his Byakugan and glared at the man who suddenly looked darkly amused.

Neji watched warily as the hawk circled around them, not taking his eyes off of the jounin. Apparently a cue had been given because he felt claws scrape at the back of his head.

But he couldn't _see_ it.

Neji spun around, white eyes wide with shock, but the hawk was already gone. He saw the jounin smirk and throw something onto the ground. And the world erupted into light that seared its way into Neji's mind.

The last thing he remembered of that day was a voice saying, "She clearly isn't practicing as hard as I've told her to."

* * *

**10\. Orphan**

They were both orphans, once upon a time. She didn't really know that Shintarou was once as alone as she had been before she had been adopted by the village weaponsmith. He sympathized with her past; he too had lived in the orphanage for the first few years of his life. But they were both made stronger by their circumstances, he brought into the Nijimura clan and she made into a weaponsmith apprentice and future Weapons Mistress.

They were once orphans, but they would both be great one day. Of that, Shintarou is sure.

* * *

**11\. Awe**

Sometimes Midorima awed her, the way he knew every single one of the weapons in his possession like he knew his limbs, the way he could glare down any of the more snide chuunin or jounin with nothing but an ominous glare of his glasses, the way that even the more foolish jounin talked of him, respect and annoyance there in equal measure.

He came back one day after a mission with a pair of kusarigama. He silently gave her one then spent the rest of the day practicing with it until he looked as comfortable with it as he did with his kunai.

Yep, he definitely awed her.

* * *

**12\. Impress**

At this point, when the guy a few years older than her smiled at her, she was just straight-up impressed. "Is he one of your brothers too?" she asked, watching the unfairly _pretty_ man look around before catching sight of the guy beside her and walking over, his visible eye narrowing as his smile grew.

Midorima grunted and his hawk outright laughed. "No, Himuro is not related to me," he said sternly. "Murasakibara found him and brought him back to the village one day. He's just a vassal of the clan, though that in itself is certainly not a bad rank to hold."

Tenten snorted and wondered if she could ask Himuro if he did anything special to keep his skin that clear.

* * *

**13\. Inspire**

Tenten will take this secret to her grave if she can help it, but it was also probably rather obvious: It was Midorima who inspired her to be a Weapons Mistress.

She had only been a new Academy student at the time, going under the recommendation of the weaponsmith that'd adopted her. She was leaving one day when she came across a tall man arguing with a blue-haired teen, the teen mocking him constantly until the man growled and threw a kunai behind his back. It had clearly been a dare or challenge, but that wasn't what Tenten focused on.

What she focused on was that the kunai was stuck in the exact center of the target despite the man never once turning to look or check its trajectory. A perfect bullseye. She looked on in wonder as a hawk flew down, plucked out the kunai, and returned it to the older teen's had, the younger one snickering but raising his hands up in defeat.

She wanted to be like that guy one day, Tenten decided. She wanted to hit a target perfectly without even having to look.

* * *

**14\. Seal**

"In a time of war, it is likely that the girl would have been your ideal apprentice." Seijuurou dutifully told Shintarou, not paying his "brother" any mind when he choked on the breath he'd taken. 'Hidora's left head still won't secrete the poison for its fangs,' he mused in annoyance, tilting the serpentine puppet's left head back so that he could look closer at the hinges and seals.

"I beg your pardon?" Shintarou finally gasped out, looking horrified at the very thought. Seijuurou sympathized; in their minds, they'd been fortunate to not have a female as their third teammate, Atsushi complementing their group better. This opinion had only been solidified by the horror stories that Ryouta and Daiki constantly told them of their missions with Satsuki.

There was also the week that the two hid in their rooms as Shuuzou gave Satsuki the dreaded Talk, giving her a chocolate bar when he finished and walking off in a haunted daze.

"I will not repeat myself when I know you heard me quite clearly," he told the other, his hands reaching for a nearby screwdriver to open the puppet's mouth hinges. "You are a Weapons Master; she excels in bukijutsu; it is not a difficult conclusion to make."

It was not uncommon for shinobi to take on a single apprentice in a time of war. For instance, after the Kyuubi Incident the village had implemented a war-time system and Shuuzou had mentored two genin until they reached the rank of chuunin. Shintarou knew this as well and grimaced.

"Well then it is fortunate indeed that we are not in a war, isn't it?" Is all he snapped after a moment's pause and Seijuurou hummed absently in agreement. They fell to silence once more.

* * *

**15\. Scroll**

She may dislike Akashi (and she really, really _did_ ), but Tenten could acknowledge that using a scroll to keep more puppets on hand was an excellent idea. Thinking more on it, she made two of her own storage scrolls, putting as many weapons into them as she could.

It worked, and releasing them had been very impressive and cathartic, but she couldn't use them after she threw them if the opponent managed to dodge most of them. She attached ninja wire to each weapon, but they still wouldn't easily return.

She became airborne after more testing and that was what she needed for this technique to be near perfect. She grinned in excitement.

The Soushouryuu was going to be so awesome once she finished it.

* * *

**16\. Hawk**

Takao grumbled to himself as that panda-haired female ran over, and ruffled his feathers in annoyance. He honestly didn't get why Shin-chan put up with her when he had other things to be worrying about, like doing missions or practicing his aim for hours on end.

Instead he let that distracting nuisance of a genin-hatchling spar with him and ask for advice and just _hover_ around them. It was driving Takao crazy! If Shin-chan didn't get in enough practice he got pouty and snapped at the others and sulked during dinner until Shuu smacked him and gave him a bowl of red bean soup.

It was funny, hilarious even, the first few times she hunted them down and annoyed Shin-chan into giving her advice, but now she didn't _need_ it. Takao liked her well enough, but sometimes he wished she would give them some time to relax inside the village.

And maybe…maybe Takao just wanted to spend some time with his partner without having to be quiet the entire day, damn it all.

* * *

**17\. Youth**

"Yosh!" Lee shouted out, pumping his fist in his exuberance. "Tenten! I find your rivalry with Midorima-san to be epitome of youth! I shall endeavor to make my rivalry with Neji as youthful as yours with Midorima-san!" Gai beamed proudly at his pupil, before looking at his only female student. While annoyed, she didn't contradict the boy's statement and simply sighed in resignation. Gai nodded happily.

Good. She shouldn't deny her the identity of her Eternal Rival. It would certainly hurt any Eternal Rival's feelings to have such a connection denied. He could only imagine how Kakashi would react if he stopped declaring him his Eternal Rival, and it should certainly be the same with anyone else.

(Throughout the village, Shintarou, Kakashi and Neji suddenly felt the need to vehemently deny something.)

* * *

**18\. Age**

"My guardian has asked me to invite you to dinner at our house." Tenten stared at Midorima in utter confusion, both he and his hawk looking equally displeased with his words.

"…Why?" She finally asked, figuring that that should be the first thing to figure out before moving on to other questions.

Midorima sniffed. "My…siblings…were making fun of me about you constantly following me around and my guardian grew curious as I haven't spoken of you to him. Since he guessed – correctly – that I wouldn't invite you to the house willingly, he requested you come by for dinner so he could finally meet you."

Tenten's confusion barely faded. "Why didn't he just find me himself and invite over that way? This seems like a lot of extra work for all of you."

"He wouldn't have been able to easily recognize you. And," for a moment Midorima seemly incredibly displeased, his glasses flashing, "he's been incredibly busy as of late. Many villages have been sending in large requests for jewelry with the upcoming festivals. He wouldn't feel comfortable leaving the house at the moment."

Tenten felt a small wave of sympathy at that, and nodded in agreement. "Sure, I'll go. Thanks for the invitation."

Midorima nodded and, when the sun began to set, led her toward the Hokage Monument. "While they lived in the Kuroko compound for a while, Shuuzou-nii found that they all preferred to live in the Nijimura compound by the monument; less memories from the sounds of it." Tenten nodded in understanding and they soon arrived at a rather traditional looking clan house.

They entered easily and as they were changing out their shoes Midorima called out, "We're home."

"Welcome home," a voice stated by them, and Tenten turned to see a man slightly shorter than Midorima standing before them, with a surprisingly normal shade of hair and clear grey eyes. Midorima's hawk – she really needs to learn its name – flew to him and perched on his outstretched arm easily, content as the man ran a hand down its back. "You must be Tenten," he greeted, nodding slightly to her. "I am Nijimura Shuuzou, the head of this clan."

Tenten hastily bowed at this information, nervous. "Thank you for inviting me here tonight." She was actually stunned that he was the Clan Head, but there was a certain age to his appearance that made him appear older than he likely was, now that she was aware of his position in the clan.

Nijimura waved her off. "It was no trouble, I was admittedly quite curious to meet the girl that my wards were constantly teasing Shuuzou with." He smiled in amusement, and she hesitantly returned it. "Now then, it's time for dinner. I hope you don't mind, but we have a few other people invited as well."

"I don't mind at all," she reassured, but was somewhat concerned when the hawk started laughing.

It was absolute _chaos_. There were chairs being thrown, and people laughing and shouting and generally wreaking havoc on the rather battered looking table. A woman in a tan trench coat was draping over a man with light blue hair that didn't pay her any mind. Himuro was distracting Murasakibara from eating all of the deserts right away, and Akashi was talking with Momoi with a pleasant smile on his face that made Tenten immediately wish she ran away screaming when she had the chance.

Kise was playing with a dog that had the exact same eyes as the light blue-haired man and arguing heatedly with a teen his age that had dark blue hair and eyes. Eventually the blue-haired teen scowled and poured his drink on the blonde, instigating a shriek of rage and a small scuffle that everyone else ignored.

And they hadn't even started _eating_ yet.

It was the most interesting dinner she'd ever gone to.

* * *

**19\. Friends**

The day following the epic Battle of the Table Midorima approached her again, and simply handed her a necklace. It was a tiger's eye shaped in an oval with a grey pearl in the center of it. When she looked at it in blank comprehension he snorted. "I think Shuuzou-niisan wants you to have it since you managed to survive the entirety of dinner without running away screaming."

When she just continued to stare at it he scowled rather harshly. "You don't have to accept it," he stated, but Tenten could just _tell_ that that was a lie; that it would hurt at least one person to deny that little piece of jewelry.

"Are you kidding? It looks amazing!" She snatched it from him and saw a slight tension seep from his frame.

"Good." He adjusted his glasses. "Don't screw up, or I'll hunt you down myself." He then left, his hawk utterly silent – and disapproving? – on his shoulder and Tenten stared after him.

"What the hell does _that_ mean?!"

* * *

**20\. Rivals**

They were the Weapons Master and Mistress of Konoha. Their aim was true, their words at times as sharp as the weapons they threw and just as precisely thrown. They were feared and admired by doujutsu users, and valued highly by their teammates.

They both trained rigorously for their distinction, sharpening their skills and honing them as she did at the forge, as he did when his hands grew idle. They practiced until they both became weapons on their own right, where they were praised by their allies and avoided by their enemies.

They were Nijimura "Midorima" Shintarou and Tenten, the Weapons Master and Mistress of Konoha. They were friends, colleagues, acquaintances, allies. And, though they both rather scorned the idea (her out of horrified recollections of her sensei and exuberant teammate and he out of annoyance and denial, in Takao's words), rivals.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a lot of fun to write! The only one that really gave me trouble was the very last one, so yay!
> 
> Also, before I'm asked, I am not trying to pair them up in this. She's 12-13, and he's 18-19. That's a bit of a gap at their current age.


End file.
